Terms of Allegiance
by Kit-Kat015
Summary: Five years after the collapse of Sacks Tower, New York City and Times Square are finally getting back on their feet. But with the return of a famous scientist and bio-engineer in the wake of Erik Sacks' arrest, April O'Neil and four young women find themselves roped into a new adventure with the city's silent heroes beneath the concrete.


**_Author's Notes: So, I've been toying with the characters privately for a while, and have written a few one-shots about them. But if there's one thing that has always kind of rubbed me the wrong way, it's when you make these characters and never really show how they meet the canon characters. Whether it's at the beginning or in a flashback, or even just talked about in dialog, I'd like to know beyond your character's profile how they met the canon characters. owo _**

**_So, to avoid falling into the trap of my own pet peeve, an introduction story showcasing four OCs that will be featured in a few more longer stories and several one-shots I've been working on. This will mostly be written without much beta-reading, though, so if you notice any problems, let me know!_**

**_Lastly, it would be wise if you've seen the 2014 movie before coming into this, but if you haven't, don't worry, you won't fall TOO far behind. _**

**_~Kit_**

* * *

"Ladies and gentle-ladies!" Elysia Hawthorne called behind her as she led three young women around the snow and ice coated corner. "After five years of being a useless pile of nothing, the Bread and Butter Cafe is finally open for business again!"

Any other freezing February morning, all four of them would be inside sipping hot chocolate and tea and scoffing at the idea of being outside for longer than twenty minutes. Today was a special and important day for them; a day they had been waiting five long years for. Times Square, the very heart of New York City, seemed to have a little bit of everything; from the modern and chic malls and shopping centers, to the simple, traditional, 'good-ol-fashioned' types of stores. Several of these stores were destroyed not too long ago; most were only just now started to be rebuilt and open to the public again, while some were still trying to be rebuilt.

The Bread and Butter Cafe, though, had finally managed to be restored to its former charm and glory, and all four women looked up to the neat, freshly painted side with varying smiles and degrees in pride. Ellie wrapped her arms over the shoulders of the only two women shorter than her and grinned, absolutely radiant with pride.

"And it's about time, too." Ellie laughed again.

"Yeah, man, it's been way too long!" The shorter girl to her left rejoiced, though her speech was muffled a bit with her ridiculously oversized, dark green-and-white scarf wrapped around her neck, mouth and nose. "I can't wait to get back to work. My funds have been in serious red-zone since this place got crushed."

"I'm just glad that Times Square is finally healing," the tallest and oldest of the four sighed with a relaxed and relieved smile, looking over her shoulders to examine the previously demolished buildings around them. "I was scared we would lose a lot of these places after that tower spire collapsed. This right here is a true testament to human resilience and determination."

"Yes, yes, it's all very meaningful. I'm just glad we have a place to hang out again." Ellie waved for the girls to follow her as she started to head inside. "Come on. I think Mrs. Hawthorne has everything all set up; Claire just needs to set up the TVs."

"I'm ready to do mah 'tronics thing, honey!" The shortest girl, a dark skinned, dark, wavy haired, and noticeably pudgy bundle of smiles and energy named Clarissa Epinosa, called after her with enough excitement to wake the groggy city itself, her tool-bag bumping against her hips with much vigor as she hurried in after Ellie. "C'mon, Angel; c'mon, Rosie! We're burning daylight!

The tallest young woman, a dark skinned, black haired and slender woman of twenty-three years named Angelynn Thompson, offered her arm and a kind smile to the shorter, more anxious girl left behind. The girl hesitantly took her arm and allowed herself to be led inside once she had the support of the older woman's arm. Claire and Angel quickly shed their winter coats and tossed them over a chair near the entrance, while Ellie was only wearing a light sweater and jeans to begin with. The last girl on Angel's arm opted to keep her winter coat on, though. Angel whispered for her to take it off, but after the girl shook her head, Angel decided not to pester and let her sit down at the table closest to the door.

The Bread and Butter Cafe was one of the more quaint shops in New York; dark oak wood flooring and ceilings and lightly speckled stone walls supported the building, with speckled marble counters decorated with the cash register, plastic racks of small cookies and cakes, and small containers of small, .50cent trinkets. The front of the store was almost all window, about 3 feet from the ground up and two feet wide were given to a cushioned seat stretching all along the window, allowing customers to freely watching the beautiful snowfall outside. At least ten to twelve small, white-and-red tables littered the cafe with two matching chairs each, and in the far right of the store were slightly larger tables underneath a wide, evenly cut hole with a mess of wiring spilling out from the wall and sprawling onto the tables. Two plasma flat screen TVs leaned against the tables, waiting to be hooked up.

Claire instantly darted for the TVs and laid her tool bag out on one of the tables to get to work. Angel leaned against one of the chairs and inspected the newly repaired cafe pleased satisfaction.

"My goodness, Ellie, it looks great! Your parents did a great job on fixing this place up," she called over to Ellie, who pulled herself up to sit on an empty spot of the counter. "You can hardly tell that this place used to be a pile of rubble."

"Yeah. It took five damn years, but we finally managed to get this dump patched up." Ellie leaned back a bit, her grip on the edge keeping her from falling back. "Hopefully we can start bringing some money in again. I won't have to mooch off of Rosie anymore for school junk and lunch."

"I really didn't... mind buying you lunch," the long, black haired, full-figured girl at the table finally piped up. Rosalie Donovan's tone was of a reserved, soft-spoken and very uncertain kind, and her smile gentle and nervous. "You girls buy me lunch all the time, so it wasn't too much for me to do the same, you know."

"It was still nice of you to help me and my folks out all this time, Rose." Ellie argued back with appreciation in her tone, doing well to suppress any and all 'rich kid' jokes that came to mind.

Rose seemed to withdraw a bit with a sheepish half-smile, her paler complexion flushed from Ellie's gratitude. She didn't respond though, and no one pried for her to. Ellie, Angel, and especially Claire knew very well to let Rose talk at her own speed, and when she had nothing else to say, Angel looked back up to Ellie as the door behind Ellie opened.

"So, where's your mom? I thought she was coming here early to stock the fridges and the pantry." Mid-sentence, Angel looked up as she noticed she older woman attempting to creep up on Ellie from behind, and fought a grin.

"She's probably in the kitchen doing that. She'll pop out wh—" She shrieked and jumped at the feeling of quick fingers grabbing and tickled her sides, and the older woman behind her caught her when she fell back.

"Gotcha!" The older woman chuckled with amused glee as she held Ellie in her arms and looked down with a cheeky grin.

"Mrs. Hawthorne!" Ellie laughed despite her attempts to frown and look at her with serious bother once she sat up and stabilized herself. "Don't do that! Almost made me crack my head open on the floor."

"Oh, hush, I caught you." Mrs. Hawthorne, Eleanor Hawthorne, was a shorter, stouter woman, short dark hair that was just starting to streak with silver a bit lining her face, but outlined stressed-lined, tanned cheeks perfectly as she couldn't fight her grin. "Sorry for the scare, though, hun. I'm just so excited to have this place up and running again; I've got too much energy to spare. Thanks again for hooking up the TVs, Claire."

"No prob, Mrs. Hawthorne!" Claire called from her spot as she worked. "Angie, come over here and hold this up for me, will ya? This might take a while."

Angel quickly darted over to help Claire and grabbed the dangerously teetering TV screen to keep it stable. Eleanor sighed happily as she leaned against the countertop.

"I'd almost lost hope on the ol' girl. Thank you so much for the repair funds, Rosie; I'd have to foreclose without your help." She thanked with twice as gratitude in her tone.

Rose's cheeks darkened with color again, and she took large chunks from her long, jet black hair and wrapped it over her cheeks a bit to hide her bashful blush. She more than likely muttered something along the lines of 'you're welcome', but whether she did or not, they knew she meant it. Ellie slipped off of the countertop and headed over to the cushioned seat by the window. Once she plopped down, she leaned against the window and watched Eleanor go through the cash register and start adjusting the racks and containers to make sure they were perfectly aligned. Rose kept to herself watching the snow outside, and Claire and Angel stayed focused on their work, leaving Ellie to just lean against the window and watch the snow fall.

She appreciated quiet moments like this; nothing going on, no hassle or conversation, just quiet. She'd needed this kind of contention for a while, and after twenty-one years of stress and strife, after twenty-one years of always having something to worry about, she finally felt content. She almost felt at peace with herself a bit. Everything seemed right with the world; only one semester of college left, and with her adoptive mother's store fixed, she could finally get some cash for herself again without relying on Rose's money anymore. It was a blissful feeling, watching the city go by through her white-haired reflection in the window with absolutely nothing on her mind. It was perfect; almost too good to even be real.

It took Angel and Claire at least twenty-five minutes to finally get the first TV hooked up, and another five to get the remote synced up and functioning. Claire's success was announced by her immediate hollering the moment the news appeared in crystal clear sound and picture on the screen. Almost everyone but Angel jumped at the instant noise shattering the soothing silence, though only Rose let out a small yelp at the sound.

"Ha! I remain the Queen of Tech!" She declared loudly and proudly.

She put the remote down and decided to let the news play a bit before she settled down in a nearby chair to relax. Angel laughed as Claire rested half her body across part of the table in an exaggerated plump, and picked up her coat to throw it over Claire's back. Eleanor was just popping out from the kitchen – apparently Ellie must have missed her going into the back – with several mugs of hot chocolate when she heard the noise, and she cut through the open counter-top 'gate' to put the platter down on the table.

"Thank you so much, Claire! This looks great; now my shop has just a little something for everyone!" Eleanor ruffled Clair's shoulder length, dark brown wavy hair in gratitude. "I'd be so lost without you girls' help."

"We'd hate to see a place like this go, Mrs. Hawthorne," Angel admitted as she settled down across from Claire and gathered a warm, red mug. "This cafe is a piece of our childhood. Seeing it go would be like giving up a childhood toy. Or in Ellie's case, her woobie."

Claire snorted at the name, and Ellie shot Angel a look of playful warning as she stood up.

"I like that blanket, all right?" Ellie pulled a chair over to the table and took a white mug to sip on the hot chocolate, instantly warming her chilled stomach and frozen hands. "It's warm. Lets not go firing shots over it."

"C'mon, El, it's cute," Angel laughed as she reached over to pat Ellie's bright white hair, but made sure not to ruin the bun Ellie had thrown her usually shoulder length hair up into. "It's nothing to be ashamed about."

"You're ashamed." Ellie muttered over her hot chocolate, eliciting laughter from the women around her before turning to look over her shoulder to Rose. "Yo, Rose! You want any of... Rose, what's up?

Only when Ellie asked this did the others look up and notice the look on concern stretched across Rose's face, her elbows propped on the table and her palms supporting her chin as she covered her mouth. She briefly nodded over to the TV with further dismay, prompting everyone to either stand and look around, or turn around in their seats. Eleanor grabbed the remote and turned the volume up so everyone could hear.

The news report made Ellie quickly slam her mug down on the table again so as not to drop is and spout at least two obscenities. A pretty and prim news anchor accompanied her report with a profile image of an older, African American man clearly aged by stress. The man seemed to be smiling proudly, and had the air of an intelligent and eloquent man, but the image and the name underneath made everyone's blood run thick as Ellie fumed.

"_After almost two decades of its running, the president and founder of the country's leading technological manufacturing company, world renowned scientist and engineer Baxter Stockman is bringing StockTronics to the Big Apple. After leaving Sacks Industries following a fire in the main lab, Mr. Stockman had since gone into business for himself, and business is booming. He's recently announced his relocation to New York City following the arrest of Sacks Industries' founder, Erik Sacks, to aid in the city's continuing reconstruction._"

"Son of a—Can you believe this shit?!" Ellie instantly plopped down in her chair again and crossed her arms tightly against her chest. Her cheeks and neck flushed with an angry, magenta color. "After all the shit that asshole put me through, he has the fuckin' nerve to come back to New York?!"

"Elysia. Language." Eleanor warned her gently, but wasn't going to argue much further.

"Mrs. Hawthorne, this is the only situation where I think language is very necessary." Ellie growled under her breath. "The minute Sacks Industries goes belly up, he decides to just swoop in and take over like a grade schooler taking a kid's dropped toy."

"Odd analogy, but I get your point," Angel sighed and leaned back in her seat. "You have every right to be mad, El; he did a lot of bad stuff, especially to you. And him coming back... it must feel like he's following you, almost."

Ellie snorted through her nose, but her tense muscles softened from her understanding tone. Angel just always had this way of narrating her thoughts and feelings; always had the knack for it since elementary school. She did her best to drown out the rest of the report; all it did was pour more salt in the wounds.

"Almost. It's his fault my life's as bizarre as it is."

"Well, ya know, all things considered, I think you've adapted pretty well." Angel reached over to pat and rub her back. "I mean, hey, you figured out your body temp cycle. You know what you can and can't do, and you got a system going to make life relatively normal for you. At lest you have it all figured out, right?"

"Mostly." Ellie sighed and picked up her mug. It was only after another sip that she noticed how much cooler it had gotten in only a few short minutes. "Ma. Hot chocolate's getting cold. Think you can go nuke some more?"

"Of course, sweetie." Eleanor kissed the top of her head and quickly went into the back to make another mug.

After Eleanor went into the back, Rose finally stood up and pulled a chair over to sit with her friends. She didn't say another, though, and just hesitantly patted Ellie's shoulder. Rose, Angel, and Claire looked to one another to try to give each other an idea as Ellie stared into her mug, and Claire was the first to sit up and give it a go.

"And, hey, now that you got all the bad stuff figured out, you can focus on all the cool stuff you can do!" Claire reached over to pat her arm. "Besides, I've been jealous of your hair for years. It's the coolest hair in the world."

Ellie couldn't help but laugh a bit at her attempts, repressing all urges to snap at her for trivializing her problems. She knew Claire was only trying to help lift her spirits a bit, and as little as her lack of tact succeeded, Ellie always appreciated her attempts in concept. She couldn't dare shoot Claire down, so she just swirled her drink around a bit.

"Yeah, it's nice, I guess. It works, all things considered."

They heard Eleanor leave the kitchen with some more hot chocolate, but also heard her pause and mutter something along the lines of an 'oh, no'. They turned to look to her and found her setting the cup down in a new agitation.

"Elysia. Your grandfather is on the television."

"My what is on the who?" Ellie growled, her grip tightening on the mug and her tone becoming a sickly, dark one as she whirled out of her chair and stood to glare back at the TV.

"_...President and founder of the world's leading genetics research facility, and among the top ten research benefactors in the scientific community, Techno-Genetics Research Institution, Dr. Alistair Evans has announced the company's recent collaborations with StockTronics. While only StockTronics' headquarters will be relocating to New York City, TGRI's genetics division will also be moving in to share research, data, and land alongside StockTronics. More as it-_"

Claire soon flailed a bit as she reached over and turned the TV off manually before it could go any further, but the damage was already done. Before anyone could say anything to try to quell Ellie's anger, she quickly fished out her cell phone and went through her contacts. She growled to everyone that she'd be outside and needed a minute as she dialed; if they responded at all, she didn't hear. She slammed the door behind her and leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the door as she waited for her call to go through. She didn't care how cold it was or who overheard her; none of it was going to bother her. She had to hear about this.

She took a deep breath to calm herself when her call was answered by a shaky, elderly voice that made her instantly snort.

"_Heeeeeeeey, sweet pea. Did you hear the news? I mean... you wouldn't be calling if you hadn't._" Ellie's leg instantly started twitching against the sidewalk at her grandfather's nervous tone.

"Yeah, I overheard you were working with the person who destroyed my life. I just wanted to call and see what you were smoking to make that brilliant decision, and ask where I could get some." She snapped back at him with a voice thick with snide malice.

"_Now, Eli-_"

"Don't talk to me like I'm the one being ridiculous here!" She shouted with a pitch sharp enough to cut glass.

"_I'm—Honey, I'm not. I didn't really... It was a hard decision. The company was going belly up, hun; we needed a partner to share funds with, and Mr. Stockman made too good of an offer for me. I had to._"

Ellie had to hold her breath for a second to fight back a scream. She crossed her arm under her elbow, her stance instantly tight and stiff, her normally cool composure slightly heated and her skin flushing a dark magenta.

"He better have threatened to buy out the company or something." She hissed, and snorted at the sound of his exasperated and defeated sigh.

"_Look... honey. I'm not the only one working in this company; there are hundreds of workers that get paid, that can provide for their families, because I gave them work. If the company goes, hundreds of people and their families are sunk. I had no choice._"

"...damn you."

"_But, uh, hey, doesn't his former boss getting arrested for corruption and toxin negligence make you feel any better?_" Alistair anxiously tried to cool Ellie's agitation down, but somehow, it just made Ellie's leg twitch more.

"Oh, wow, the guy who ruined my life's boss got jailed. Now he can swoop in, buy out his buildings and resources, and take over the city. Yeah. I'm reaching the plateau stage of ecstasy at the thought."

"_That kind of humor is unbecoming of you, hun._"

"Don't call me 'hun'. I'm beyond mad at you."

"_I'm sorry, Ellie! I didn't have any other choice! It was either partner up with Dr. Stockman, or have all my research flushed down the toilet and fire hundreds of dozens of employees._"

"It says something about someone when their research comes before the people." Part of her new how ridiculous a detail that was to poke at, but the other just took it as another reason to be pissed off at him.

"_Ell-_"

"No, Grandpa, I'm done with you. I can't talk to you knowing you're working with him, after all the people he's hurt, including your own daughter!" Her tone became coarse and rigid on the last two words, but noticed it quickly and smoothed her heated, dark voice again. "I'd hoped you'd have more integrity than that, but until you stop working with him, I can't talk to you."

"_Ellie, w-_"

Ellie didn't give him another word before hanging up and stuffing her phone back in her pocket. She whirled through the door and stormed back over to her seat, dropping down in a huff and immediately drinking half her warm drink in gulps. When she finally put her cup down and looked around, she noticed how quiet, concerned, and tense her friends and adoptive mother suddenly were. Oddly, it was Rose who sat up to speak.

"Do you feel better now?" She asked in a gentle tone, reaching over to pat her shoulder with the cuff of her sweater tucked between her fingers and her palm.

Ellie bit the inside of her cheek and glanced over to her. She nodded, but the nod concealed a lie; everyone could tell and she knew it.

"A little. I'm still mad at him, but I needed to tell that son of a bitch off." She growled, though she felt a twinge of guilt when Rose swiftly withdrew at her low bark.

"If... you don't mind my asking, Ellie, why do you have such animosity fo-"

"April!"

Rose grunted a bit when she was cut off and withdrew from her question. Ellie, Angel and Claire looked up to find Eleanor making a beeline around the table and towards the door to hug the older woman who'd just entered the store. Ellie's frown fell a bit at the sight, but ultimately, she turned back to her drink and opted to simply listen. The others watched Eleanor pulled twenty-eight year old April O'Neil into a tight hug, and April stumbling a bit from the sudden rush before hugging her back.

"Hi, Mrs. Hawthorne," April barely managed to greet bashfully before Eleanor pulled back and gently gripped her shoulders to look her over.

"My goodness, the news hasn't been doing you a lick of justice, sweetheart. You've grown into your britches so handsomely! I can't believe how big you've gotten; it's been so long since I've seen you up close! How are you?" Even Ellie had to snicker at her mom's overzealous greetings and April's flustered reaction.

"Yeah, I've been great, Mrs. Hawthorne. I heard you were reopening the store," April replied pleasantly as she wandered further inside and looked around with a nod and a smile. "It almost looks brand new."

"It DID look rather worse for wear before, but on the plus side, we've saved up so much money to fix this place up, and no one has bothered to try and steal what was left!" Eleanor supported one arm with the other and tucked them under her breast-line as she turned to April with a knowing grin. "So what really brings you around here, April? I know how work-oriented you are. Before noon, you don't go anywhere unless you're on-duty."

Ellie judged, based on her pause and wry expression, that April instantly felt the teensiest bit guilty from Eleanor's comment; like Eleanor was accusing her of only coming to exploit them for the news. She hid it well, though, and reached into her news bag.

"Ok, ok, you got me. I'm covering the StockTronics and TGRI partnership." She admitted as she withdrew a recorder and a pad of paper from her bag.

Almost everyone jumped when Ellie slammed her mug loudly against the polished, wood table, and she didn't care about the number of stares she got as she turned and stormed off into the kitchen. She wasn't going to have any part in this discussion. There was no point, anyway; even April was going to be biased towards the two world-renowned scientists. She leaned against the counter closest to the door and leaned enough to listen.

"Is... everything ok? Did I say something?" She heard April ask in concern.

"Elysia... Well, she has some personal gripes with Baxter Stockman and her grandfather. She's had some bad encounters with them. She prefers not to talk about it." Ellie appreciated Eleanor's attempt to dance around the issue, but Ellie had known April for the last seven years. She knew where this was going to go.

"Oh, well, you know... Ellie's the one I wanted to talk to." And there it was. "If I could just have a few minutes to ask her some questions-"

"You're more than willing to try, hun, but she's incredibly adamant about this subject. I'll be impressed if you get her to agree to anything."

"Just try not to ask her personal questions relating to those two. Ya know, don't ask anything too... about her," Angel warned her on the other side. "She's really touchy in that regard. Only do that if you WANT her to clam up and say nothing else."

"I'll be careful," April consoled as Ellie heard her round the counter and approach the kitchen.

Ellie moved away from the counter and went to the one furthest from the door, where the tea maker happened to be. She was going to need a lot of Chai for this. She didn't turn to April when she heard her enter.

"Hey, April."

"Hi, Ellie," April greeted gently as she walked over to her and put her pad of paper down. "Can I talk to you?"

"I'd be careful how you ask your questions, April," Ellie advised with a firm tone as she plopped the tea bag into the water; she didn't want to waste any time beating around the bush. "I don't like talking about this. I'm not going to talk about myself, and if you're just looking for information to glorify those two, you came to the wrong person. But if you're actually interested in truth and fact, ask away."

"That's always what I'm looking for," April assured her with a cool resonance. "You're Alistair Evans' last living relative, and I wanted to know if you could tell me anything more about him."

"And Stockman, right?" Ellie reflexively asked before she even realized what she'd said.

"You... know more about Dr. Stockman?" April inquired with a newfound curiosity.

Ellie swore under her breath at the pitfall she just tripped into. She hesitated to turn to April and nodded when she finally did. She watched April turn a bit in uncertainty under Ellie's cold gaze.

"I thought you knew that. Yeah."

"Well... Yeah, I'd love to know anything you could tell me about them." April continued with a bit more enthusiasm, but shrunk under Ellie's sharpening expression.

"I thought you were with the news, not a gossip rag." She muttered with heightening irritation, as much as she didn't want to lose her cool so quickly the way she was.

"N-No, no, I mean... Some of their history, about what kind of people they are. I wanted an insider's look on their practice, history, and personalities so I can write a general report. I won't report anything that's too personal or private, I promise. I can keep a secret, I swear." April pleaded with her again, her voice a level of genuine that even on-edge Ellie couldn't miss or ignore.

Ellie looked to her with an incredibly hard look, staring her down to make sure April got the message that this was going to be a rocky subject that she needed to tread lightly. When April neither hardened or backed down, Ellie sighed through her nose and turned back to watching the machine brew her tea.

"Alright, then. Ask away. You can pull up a chair from outside, if you want. My tea's only gonna take another minute."

Ellie heard April leave her things there as she turned around and exited the kitchen. By the time April returned carrying two chairs over her shoulder, Ellie finished pouring her tea and sat down the minute April put both chairs down. She stirred her tea to help the sugar dissolve more evenly and looked up to April with a thin gaze.

"Alright, April. You have my attention. What do you want to know?"


End file.
